Library using technology to lower costs, raise efficiency

Wednesday

The Upper Arlington Public Library will save paper and money when it implements a new notification system next month.

The Upper Arlington Public Library will save paper and money when it implements a new notification system next month.

The library plans to end all notifications by mail for overdue books and reserve notifications and switch to a phone system as of Oct. 18.

Library director Ann Moore said the switch will help save a significant amount of money.

The library currently spends about $20,000 a year on postage. The new phone system will cost 3 cents per call instead of the 44-cents to mail a letter or postcard.

"We have a lot of e-mail notices on file É but there are still people who don't have e-mail," Moore said. "In this community, there are still a lot of people who don't have e-mail."

Greg Ramage, information technology manager, said the library has been looking at the new phone system for a number of years.

"One thing we wanted to do for many years was build a phone-notification system," he said. "Up until recently, that has been hugely expensive. The last quote we had was $20,000 just to start, not including any annual maintenance fee."

The new system, a cloud-based system called Twilio, has no start-up fee and charges are per-call.

Ramage said the system that the library has chosen to use is a third-party system that ties in with the library's existing system.

"We are looking at it as a direct replacement of the actual paper notices," he said.

In addition to the new call notification system, the library also plans to implement text message notifications.

The text messaging system will be free for the library and will cost users the same cost as a regular text message.

The Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) manages the system.

He said the system allows the library to send OPLIN an e-mail, and OPLIN then sends the text message to the customer.

The library also plans to move the entire Tremont Road main library to a self-checkout system. The Lane Road branch currently has one self-checkout station, and the Miller Park branch has none.

"We want to get out of the paper business as much as possible," Ramage said.

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